May 23 1980
From The Space Library
The Washington Post reported that Summa Corporation, holding company for the late billionaire Howard Hughes's estate, would "immediately" disassemble the Spruce Goose, Hughes's 140-ton flying boat, since a last minute public appeal for $750,000 to preserve it had failed. The Port of Long Beach, Calif., had wanted the 220-foot boat, 80-feet high with a 320-foot wingspan, to display with another transportation mammoth, the ocean liner Queen Mary. Designed to be a World War 11 troop carrier, the eight-engine Spruce Goose (actually made mostly of birch) had flown only once in 1947. Parts of it would go to nine museums, including the Smithsonian. (W Post, May 23180, F3)
ESA reported that the Ariane L02 launched from Guyana at 14:29 GMT had fallen into the sea. Liftoff was normal, but 7 seconds later, telemetry showed pressure fluctuations in a first-stage motor that caused the other motors to fail. The launcher self-destructed at 108 seconds. Teams evaluating the telemetry data later reported events during launch in detail; further study would be needed to find the cause of the malfunction. (ESA Release May 23, Info 15)
LaRC said that NASA had sent an airborne-particle measurement team from WFC as far west as Missouri May 21-22 to measure dust layers resulting from the eruption of Mt. St. Helens, which had caused dense concentrations of particles in five distinct clouds in the stratosphere over the United States and Canada. The leading edge of the volcano plume (a tropospheric cloud containing the largest amount of particles) had already passed over the United States and was out to sea.
NASA had detected concentrations of from 200 to 800 particles per cubic centimeter (typical readings were only half a particle per cubic centimeter) May 21 and 22 in a stratospheric dust layer over Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana at an altitude of 13-14 kilometers (43,000-46,000 feet). Four other stratospheric dust clouds had been detected over eastern Canada, the Ohio Valley, the Great Plains, and the far west, with particle concentrations far above normal. Besides airplane and high-altitude balloon observations the week of May 19-23, scientists were waiting for a NASA satellite carrying the SAGE (stratospheric aerosol and gas experiment) to come to a point in its orbit over the United States and Canada where it could provide more detailed measurements of atmospheric profile in latitudes from 55° to 30°N before it went out of range May 28. (LaRC Release 80-42)
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